Wednesday, 22 October 2008

The PRC Ratio

Tottenham currently have amassed as many red cards as they have points: 2. This is a most unusual achievement, and we feel it deserves comment.

The relationship between Points and Red Cards is known as the P::RC Ratio, or PRC for short. This is sometimes pronounced "perc" but we prefer the more sonorous "pric".

Tottenham's PRC stands at P2::RC2, giving a value of 1.0. To put this score into context, the current total for all 20 Premiership teams is: P221::RC15, which represents an average PRC value of 14.73. So Tottenham's PRC is nearly 15 times smaller than the average.

Or, we could look at it another way.

As one team out of 20, Tottenham represent 5% of the total. The 20 teams have so far gained a total of 221 points, of which Tottenham have 2 (0.9% of the total). At the same time a total of 15 red cards have been shown, of which Tottenham also have 2 (13.3%).

So, statistically, they are 5 and a half times worse than the average, and 2 and three quarters times dirtier.